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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Wait, is that the real Rades? - A Navispam post

Dragonray has been wanting to give me a surprise, a present for the last week. She has been saying all sorts of cryptic things about how she's not sure it would work out, so don't get too excited. I kept telling her she didn't have to get me anything, but she seemed so determined I was happy to accept whatever it was, and I was sure I would love it. I thought she was going to make something for me, like a scarf, or an item of jewellery.

On Friday, I was having a crazy day. I could hardly function at work because of all the hoo-ha of the "unfortunate incident" and trying my best to reply every well wisher as well as do my best to keep my promise of visiting Nymphy and Orv because they also asked to see me.

I was on really briefly with super lag trying to get my Navispam of Nymphy and Orvillius and Dragonray saw me and said she had to tell me something, would I be on long? I don't think I could even reply her because I was at work and had to go actually DO some work (how dare work interrupt my World of Warcraft stuff!! LOL) and when I finished work I went to logon to look for Dragonray to see what she wanted. I thought maybe she had more hugs for me.

So I logged on and yelled to her on realID "I'm here!!! LOL!"

She was on one of her alts, and she replied me with a /hug and said "ok wait there, I have something for you". I was standing around in Org and she logged off and logged on Dragonray. I chatted to all my realID friends who were wishing me well and hugging me, and Thunderspank was on and I said to him I'd love to PvP with him because I could go relieve my stress by smashing some Alliance in a BG. Dragonray was still... on Dragonray. I was puzzled. Why wasn't she getting onto her toon on Dath'remar? I noticed a name I didn't recognise on my realID and I frowned at it for a whole 2 seconds before I realised it was Grimmtooth and in my excitement I whispered him "Grimm?" and wouldn't you know it, he was in a dungeon. Well shit, Navi, like you haven't learned your lesson about whispering people from Eff who are in a dungeon. I was horrified. "Hi," he said. "I'm just in a dungeon."

"OMG I'm so sorry! You're in a dungeon!" I replied, embarrassed. He laughed and said no it's fine, he'll be out soon. I was a bit scared to reply back, but I closed my eyes and replayed Grimm's voice in my head "This is Grimmtooth of Grimtooth's troops..." and Zwingli said he was nice. It will all be ok.

"Do you mind if I wait in Deepholm?" I asked Dragonray. I often have a feeling of guilt while standing around talking in Orgrimmar doing nothing except talking. I should be SOMEWHERE useful whilst talking, like on a spawn point of Aeonaxx or Poseidus. Maybe I'll get lucky while I'm standing around talking, right?

"You can wait anywhere you want, hon," she replied me so off I went to Deepholm. Thunderspank was just about to log over to Thunder so we could do some PvP. So I went to Deepholm and stood on a spawn point, and talked to Zwingli as well, who was telling me his surprise and shock of the last 12 hours. I reassured him I was totally fine, and he was busy asking me every detail of meeting Nymphy and Orv and he said he wished he could hang out with the cool kids and I said, he could have come, after all he is in that guild, right?

So Dragonray asks me "Are you ready?" I said yes, and she invited me to a group, just as Thunder logged on. Before I accepted the invite, I told Thunder that Dragonray wanted to give me a present, so could he wait for a sec, he said sure. I accepted the invite and Dragonray was partied with someone. I thought it was Sam, her husband. But I looked at the name and it said Rades - like Rades of Orcish Army Knife. I giggled to myself, thinking she was going to make a practical joke with Sam on an alt named Rades, because she knew how terrified I was of talking to Rades, or even asking Rades for a Navispam because, well it's Rades. He has never visited me before, so I definitely don't want to go where I'm not wanted. It came from when I Navispammed Stoppableforce a week or two ago, and he was in the same guild as Rades, and he laughed at me because I was terrified Rades would get on and I would have no idea what to say, or even be too chicken to ask, though I know if he had gotten on I would have just swallowed the irrational fear and just asked because I would never have had that opportunity again.

But then I moused over the name of Rades - heh they even made a hunter just like the real Rades - and it was a level 85 hunter, who was ... from the same SERVER as Stoppableforce....

Oh. My. GOD. OH MY GOD.

I said in party chat. "Is that... Rades?"

"Hi," he said.

I said to Dragonray in a whisper "OMG IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS?" Yelling in a whisper is STILL whispering. The writing is still pink.

"SURPRISE!" she replied.

A summon to Stonecore appeared on my screen. Wait, I had to say a few things before I accepted that summon.

"Thunder," I whispered to Thunderspank. "I don't think I can PvP anymore. Rades has come to visit me!"

"Oh no worries!" he said, and he logged back over to his alt.

"Zwingli," I said to Zwingli. "Dragonray has just got me the most AMAZING GIFT! I'll tell you in a sec, she brought someone to meet me!"

"Ok :)" he said.

And I hit accept and I was summoned into the instance.

The two of them were standing there waiting for me. I ran over to stand in front of Rades in excitement. I emoted a wave and a bow to Rades, and then hugged Dragonray.

So. What do I say to the person that I was too scared to talk to? My mind was in a whirl. I could only think of one thing to say.

The truth.

"Rades, I need to tell you something. I was too scared to talk to you for a Navispam."

There. I said it. And you know what? After that I wasn't scared anymore. And then I remembered my manners, I changed out of my scary PvP mog into my raiding mog so I look less scary.

Rades was delightful. He seemed genuinely pleased to meet me! He teased me saying evil Navi was Neganavi not Navizor. And then when I asked him for his permission to Navispam him he was happy, I think he would have been offended if I hadn't asked! So we spent a lot of time pulling out pets, getting out toys, posing with crystals, showing off mogs and talking about blogs. I even got to use my new found courage to ask the questions that you can't ask someone on their blog.

How on earth do you read that amazingly long blogroll? Slowly.

Who do you get starstruck by since you're famous and everyone is starstruck by you? Other bloggers.

Then it was Rades' turn to ask me a funny question, he pulled out 5 pets. He asked me which one was most like me. First he pulled out a black ravager, than Ban'thalos, then another owl, then a spider which looked like Jadefang and the last one was... I forget. Dragonray said I was the spirit owl Ban'thalos, but I knew which one was more me the instant I saw it. The ravager. So I told Rades, and Dragonray wondered why so I showed her.... I put on my PvP mog and it matched the black ravager very well! So I was standing next to the pet taking pictures, and then Dragonray whispered me.

"OMG Navi, he just named his PET after you!"

Crap, I had pet names off. I couldn't even SEE that. Way to go Navi, he was probably wondering why you didn't squeee over it!

"OMG did you just name your pet after me? OMG SQUEEEEE!" I said as I turned pet names back on. "Rades, that is the highest honour."

So after that we did the dungeon to the second boss to see if we were lucky with a mount - no such luck. But it was fun :)

Zwingli wanted me to say hi to Rades but I forgot in the excitement so I'll say here that Zwingli said HI Rades!

Dragonray, this was a truly awesome gift. So thoughtful and just what I needed! I have thanked her so much but I will thank her here again for being an awesome friend.

Rades was amazingly cool and calm at dealing with a squealing fan. I think it's an everday occurence for him. It was fun though, and superb surprise.We were playing in the last pic - I was evil Neganavi and I was killing Rades with a hurricane!

Tami if I was that famous I would know right? I still feel like me! And if people look up to me like I look up to Rades... WOW. I can't see that happening! But if it did I hope I would be as cool as Rades.

I am so glad I decided to whisper you - I was wondering why you hadn't reacted at all to it..LOL and here I was screaming at the computer "OMG NEGANAVI!! OMG HE NAMED HIS PET AFTER HER!?!??!? WTF - she isn't saying thanks!?!?!?"

Filming my reaction would have been funny, but all worked out in the end :) hehe

Oh man, I was still a brand new baby blogger the first time I properly met Rades. I followed him and a few other bloggers on twitter, and I would reply to them sometimes if they said something particularly funny, but none of them really knew who I was.

And then Vidyala (who was still at Pugging Pally at the time) was doing an art stream while she drew a background for a contest winner or something, and I went. There were a bunch of people there for a while, and I didn't talk too much, but eventually people wandered off and it was just me, Vid, and Rades. We both helped her figure out how to position a dead ghoul so it didn't look like it was floating over the snow, and suddenly we were all chatting and having a ball and OH MY GOD THIS WAS VIDYALA AND RADES.

Really, it was awesome. They were so nice to me, and we started actually talking on twitter, and commenting on each others blogs and basically I am so so so glad that I went to that livestream, because it kicked off my friendship with a couple of seriously awesome people, even if Vid and I have mostly fallen out of touch because I'm balls at twitter. XD

ALL THIS TO SAY that meeting Rades for the first time is nervewracking for more than just you, but he always ends up being the sweetest damn guy. <3

I love listening to stories of bloggers meeting other bloggers. All the connections that go on because we all love the same game and we all like to write - it makes the world just that little bit smaller :) Thanks for the story Apple :D it fits in so well with the rest of this post!

<3! I love hearing stories, too. :3 It's the best when you can see "oh, this person was nervous about meeting someone they looked up to, too!" or "wow, I didn't know about that, that's so cool!" and... stuff. Yes. XD WORDS, I KNOW THEM.

LOL, what a great post and goodness bub, you have a lot of squee moments :)Well Done Dragonray, it was a very thoughtful gift and I think Rades just fainted from all the excitement. Getting a pet named after you? Awesome indeed. Wait I did that once as you'll remember :D

Rades is a bit of a goof. Funny story about him, he used to link/blogroll me at my old pre-ACM blog and I didn't realize Rades was "the Orcish Army Knife" dude until way later after I had added him on Twitter.

This was so much fun, and it was really nice to meet you both! I have to admit, I think it was even better that Dragonray set it up as a surprise, for your reaction alone, haha. It's always nice to meet other bloggers "in person", and I still have to tell my druid guildie about your firecat staff trick! So awesome. :D

LOL hey thanks Slice :D And normally I don't like surprises but this one was great!Evil Navi, or Navizor comes from this post http://frostwolves.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/how-to-make-me-angry-navizor-in-bgs.html